Come as You Are
1991 · From Nevermind
A Small Clone chorus pedal gives the riff its underwater sound, and Cobain nearly withheld the single.
★ 8.0
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Thank You
1969 · From Greatest Hits
Larry Graham slapping and popping the bass line credited with inventing the technique, and a verse quoting their own hits.
★ 7.8
Alive
1991 · From Ten
Gossard's demo was called Dollar Short until Vedder set it to learning who his real father was.
★ 7.6
Me, Myself and IDe La Soul
Me, Myself and I
1989 · From 3 Feet High and Rising
Prince Paul flipped Funkadelic's Knee Deep; De La Soul resisted the beat, then got their only R&B number one.
★ 7.3
My Name Is
1998 · From The Slim Shady LP
Dre and Eminem finished it in an hour, over a Labi Siffre interpolation, and Slim Shady existed.
★ 7.3
The Real Slim Shady
2000 · From The Marshall Mathers LP
Iovine wanted another "My Name Is," so Eminem wrote this hours before the album was due. It hit number four.
★ 7.3
Moonage Daydream
1972 · From The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Bowie first threw it away on a fake band called Arnold Corns, then rebuilt it at Trident around Ronson.
★ 7.0
Substitute
1966
Townshend built it from a single word in "Tracks of My Tears", and American pressings rewrote the line about race.
★ 6.8
The Man Who Sold the World
1994 · From MTV Unplugged in New York
Fourteen songs, one take, November 1993; Cobain plays Bowie through an amp and makes the song permanently his.
★ 6.8
Who Are YouThe Who
Who Are You
1978 · From Who Are You
Townshend woke in a Soho doorway after drinking with two Sex Pistols, and Keith Moon's last album took the title.
★ 6.7
True Colors
1986
Anne Murray turned it down, so Lauper took Steinberg and Kelly's gospel ballad and stripped it to almost nothing.
★ 6.7
Personality Crisis
1973 · From New York Dolls
Eight days at the Record Plant with Rundgren, and Johansen's strut arrived years before punk had a name.
★ 6.5
Blank GenerationRichard Hell and the Voidoids
Blank Generation
1977
A rewrite of a 1959 novelty called "The Beat Generation", with Quine and Julian's guitars turning parody into manifesto.
★ 6.4
Helplessness Blues
2011 · From Helplessness Blues
Pecknold called it an anti-protest song, a plain opinion with no poetry, and gave it away free in January 2011.
★ 6.0
L.E.S. Artistes
2008
Billed as Santogold then, White aimed it at Lower East Side poseurs; Rolling Stone called it 2008's second best single.
★ 5.3
Where I'm From
1993
Two Melvin Van Peebles samples anchor it, and the trio spends the whole track naming exactly what shaped them.
★ 4.5
I'm Real
2001
A Yellow Magic Orchestra synth loop from 1978, reportedly cleared for Mariah Carey first, carries Lopez to number one.
★ 4.3
Some Nights
2012
Ruess wanted a hip hop producer and Paul Simon's harmonies; the sleeper took seven months to reach number three.
★ 4.3
Jenny From the Block
2002
A Boogie Down Productions interpolation under the bridge, and Lopez answering the tabloids without once breaking her stride.
★ 3.4